Macropodosaurus

Smaller than a Microraptor!

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Macropodosaurus
Scientific classification

Macropodosaurus is an ichnogenus of therizinosaurid footprints from the Late Cretaceous of Asia, North America and Poland. The ichnogenus is currently monotypic only including the type ichnospecies M. gravis, described and named in 1964. When first described, Macropodosaurus tracks were inferred to have been made by a bipedal, yet indeterminate type of dinosaur. In 2006 it was re-evaluated and concluded to represent footprints of therizinosaurid dinosaurs based on comparisons with skeletal feet remains.

Description

Molina-Pérez and Larramendi in 2016 proposed an animal around 4.4 to 5 meters and 510–806 kilograms for a 56 cm long Macropodosaurus footprint.

Discovery

Macropodosaurus was described and named in 1964 by Sergey A. Zakharov, and the material consisted of a series of four-toed footprints about 50 cm (500 mm) long and 30 cm (300 mm) wide found in Cenomanian sediments at Tajikistan, noting that they were made by a bipedal four-toed dinosaur and not a quadrupedal animal.

More later, in 2006 Andrey G. Sennikov re-examined these footprints and concluded that a therizinosaurid dinosaur likely made those tracks. He compared Macropodosaurus with the feet of Erlikosaurus and Therizinosaurus noting that in a plantigrade position they match the morphology of the tracks. Sennikov considered these tracks to be more associated with therizinosaurids and proposed a plantigrade stance for them.

In 2008 two Macropodosaurus tracks were discovered in sediments of the Ferron Formation, Utah, in a locality known as the Muddy Creek Canyon. Although these have been in knowledge since their discovery, in 2013 they were described by Gerard Gierlinski and Martin Lockley.

Macropodosaurus has also been discovered in the Maastrichtian strata of Poland in 2007. This footprint is reminiscent of the tracks described by Zakharov and was assigned to Macropodosaurus sp. This discovery may indicate the ancient presence of therizinosaurids in Europe. In 2017 Masrour with colleagues reported more Macropodosaurus footprints in what is now Morocco, further expanding the paleobiogeographical range of therizinosaurids.